While US News & World Report is the oldest and most well-known college rankings publication, other publications have grown in prominence in recent years, most notably the college rankings system that The Wall Street Journal launched in 2016. Yet none yet hold a candle to US News in terms of their popular appeal.

US News’ recent changes in methodology, including placing greater emphasis on Pell Grant-recipient graduation rates and performance over the last few years, came after a number of universities withdrew their data from the organization’s rankings. In addition to Columbia University as a whole, a number of Ivy League graduate programs stopped participating, as well as a number of non-Ivy League schools. 

In the end, each student will have their own criteria for determining what school is right for them, including their interests, their passions, and their needs. US News and other rankings can be a helpful guide and a source of information. But the best way to get to know which college is right for you comes, of course, through a campus visit and serious, thoughtful research.

2026 Ivy League School Rankings

Below is an analysis of US News’ 2026 ranking for each of the eight Ivy League schools followed by Ivy Coach’s own ranking:

Ivy League School	2026 US News Ranking Among Ivies Only	2026 Ivy Coach Ranking Among Ivies Only
Brown University	#6 (tie)	#5 (Tie)
Columbia University	#8	#4
Cornell University	#5	#8
Dartmouth College	#6 (tie)	#5 (Tie)
Harvard University	#2	#1
Princeton University	#1	#2 (Tie)
University of Pennsylvania	#4	#5 (Tie)
Yale University	#3	#2 (Tie)

Brown University

US News maintained Brown University’s ranking to 13th place nationally for its 2026 edition, the same as in 2025 and down from 9th in 2024. US News’ new ranking for Brown makes it tied with Dartmouth for the fifth-highest-ranked Ivy League school. 

Brown officials touted in a public statement that US News ranked it number 2 among national universities for undergraduate teaching, number 3 for “Best Colleges for Veterans,” and number 1 in “Writing in the Disciplines” for six years in a row. 

Based on our experience, Ivy Coach considers Brown to be the fifth most difficult Ivy League university to get into, tied with Dartmouth College and the University of Pennsylvania.

2026 US News Ranking of Ivy League Schools	#6 (tie)
2026 Ivy Coach Ranking of Ivy League Schools	#5 (Tie)

Columbia University

Columbia decreased in the US News ranking for its 2026 edition to 15th nationally, down from 13th the prior year. Columbia, of course, suffered its rankings nosedive between 2022 (when it was ranked at #2) and now because the university acknowledged that it provided misleading data to US News after a math professor there said that he found discrepancies regarding class size and the percentage of faculty with terminal degrees. Both of those ranking factors were dropped this year.

Columbia’s six-year graduation rate of students who received a Pell Grant stayed the same between 2024 and 2025: 94%, down from 95% in 2022, while its six-year graduation rate of students who did not receive a Pell Grant rose to 97%, from 96% in 2024. Data covering 2026 has yet to be published by the university (do we smell some hesitance due to these very rankings? Quite possibly!).

Columbia said in 2023 that it would no longer participate in the US News ranking program, and would cease providing information to the organization. 

Ivy Coach considers Columbia the fourth most difficult Ivy League university to get into.

2026 US News Ranking of Ivy League Schools	#8
2026 Ivy Coach Ranking of Ivy League Schools	#4

Cornell University

Cornell University fell to the 12th best university nationally in the US News rankings, down from 11th the prior year.

Ivy Coach considers Cornell the easiest Ivy League university to get into, ranking it eighth.

2026 US News Ranking of Ivy League Schools	#5
2026 Ivy Coach Ranking of Ivy League Schools	#8

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College rose in its US News ranking to 13th, up from 15th the prior year. For the first time in several years, Dartmouth has surpassed Columbia and is no longer the lowest-ranked Ivy on this list.

Dartmouth ranks 5th in Ivy Coach’s ranking of the most difficult Ivy League undergraduate institutions to be accepted to, tied with Brown and Penn.

2026 US News Ranking of Ivy League Schools	#6 (Tie)
2026 Ivy Coach Ranking of Ivy League Schools	#5 (Tie)

Harvard University

Harvard University retained its spot at number three nationally on the US News list, unchanged from the year before. It is ranked as number two in the category “Best Value Schools,” whose primary criterion is academic quality relative to the average discount price paid by full-time undergraduates after receiving need-based grants.

This ranking is consistent with last year but marks a decline from 1st place in that category for the 2024 edition. Harvard’s six-year graduation rate for students who received a Pell Grant fell to 95% in 2025, down from 96% in 2024, but more up-to-date data is still forthcoming. However, its rank for “Best Undergraduate Teaching” fell to 35th place, down from 31st in 2025. 

Ivy Coach regards Harvard to be the most difficult Ivy League school to get into, believing it to be significantly harder than Yale and Princeton.

2026 US News Ranking of Ivy League Schools	#2
2026 Ivy Coach Ranking of Ivy League Schools	#1

Princeton University

Princeton University was ranked by US News as the number one university nationally, marking the 15th consecutive year that it has topped the list. The university also earned #3 on the Forbes list of America’s top colleges.

Princeton’s 97% six-year graduation rate of students who receive a Pell Grant did not change from 2025.

Ivy Coach regards Princeton to be the second most difficult Ivy League school to be accepted by, behind Harvard and tied with Yale University.

2026 US News Ranking of Ivy League Schools	#1
2026 Ivy Coach Ranking of Ivy League Schools	#2 (Tie)

University of Pennsylvania

Penn rose to number 7 nationally in US News’ ranking for 2026, having moved up from tenth the year prior. Penn’s School of Engineering fell by four spots from last year, coming in at 21st nationwide, while its Wharton School once again received the top rank for its undergraduate business program.

Penn rose to 13th place in the category “Best Value Schools,” up from 17th in 2025. Its six-year graduation rate of students who received a Pell Grant is not yet available for this year.

Penn is regarded by Ivy Coach to be the fifth most difficult Ivy League School to get into, tied with Brown and Dartmouth.

2026 US News Ranking of Ivy League Schools	#4
2026 Ivy Coach Ranking of Ivy League Schools	#5 (Tie)

Yale University

Yale came in fourth place overall in US News’ ranking for 2026, up from 5th place the year prior. Yale’s undergraduate economics program was tied for number six with Princeton, according to US News.

Yale’s ranking for best undergraduate engineering programs remained at 35th place, the same as last year but an upgrade from 37th for the 2024 edition, while its “Writing in the Disciplines” rank came in at 7th place. Yale dramatically declined in “First-Year Experiences” to 17th place, up from 26th in 2026. Yale also declined slightly in the 6-year graduation rate of students who did not receive a Pell Grant, which came in at 94.5%, down from 95% in 2025. 

Yale Law School pulled out of participating in the US News rankings a few years prior, with the dean of the school describing the ranking program as “profoundly flawed.” 

Ivy Coach regards Yale to be the second most difficult Ivy League school to get into, behind Harvard and tied with Princeton.

2025 US News Ranking of Ivy League Schools	#3
2025 Ivy Coach Ranking of Ivy League Schools	#2 (Tie)

The US News Rankings Remain As Relevant As Ever

Yet, despite Columbia as a whole withdrawing from the rankings and other Ivy League graduate programs saying no more, the US News & World Report rankings remain as relevant today as yesterday, and we at Ivy Coach anticipate they’ll be just as relevant next year. While the Ivy League schools may claim, loudly and repeatedly, to not care about their individual rankings, isn’t it funny when schools like Brown tout when its ranking rises?

And while the US News rankings remain a critical tool in the elite college admissions process, if nothing else than for its popularity, they should be interpreted with six grains of salt. Harvard is more difficult to get into than Princeton. Dartmouth is more difficult to get into than Cornell. And Columbia’s wobbly ranking shouldn’t depend exclusively on the mood and whims of a publication as both the school and publication still try to heal from the black eye of the reporting scandal that undermined their legitimacy.